M365 Project Engineer

Hours - East Coast US - 8 am - 5 pm Permanent in-country SA contract Fully remote Salary - R60,000 plus R2,000 benefits Role Priorities: - Advanced Microsoft 365 administration and complex escalation ownership. - Microsoft 365 migrations, onboarding, tenant changes, and project delivery. - Tenant quality, standardization, security alignment, and supportability. - Tier 1 mentoring, documentation, and knowledge transfer. - Automation, service improvement, and cross-functional technical guidance. - Continued technical growth toward SME and senior responsibilities. Duties and Responsibilities: 1. Advanced Microsoft 365 Administration & Escalation: - Administer and troubleshoot Entra ID, Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Intune, identity, access, licensing, collaboration, and approved tenant settings. - Own complex Microsoft 365 escalations, perform structured investigation, communicate status, document findings, and coordinate resolution with Microsoft, vendors, Cybersecurity, or senior technical resources when required. - Evaluate dependencies, client impact, supportability, and risk before making changes within the role’s authority. - Provide advanced technical assistance to Service Desk, Systems Administration, Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Projects, and Account Management. 2. Projects, Migrations & Client Onboarding: - Plan and execute assigned Microsoft 365 migrations, tenant changes, client onboarding, configuration improvements, standardization initiatives, testing, documentation, and operational handoff. - Develop implementation tasks, prerequisites, validation steps, rollback considerations, support requirements, and knowledge-transfer materials within assigned scope. - Identify risks, assumptions, missing information, dependencies, and resource needs early enough for the project team to respond. - Coordinate technical work with other contributors without assuming formal people-management authority. 3. Tenant Quality, Security & Compliance Alignment: - Review tenant configurations and operational practices for consistency, lifecycle concerns, supportability, security requirements, documentation, and alignment with ETS standards. - Support identity, conditional access, device management, email security, data protection, retention, and compliance-related activities within approved authority and in coordination with Cybersecurity and compliance owners when appropriate. - Assist with remediation, evidence, reporting, and client communication for assigned Microsoft 365 security or compliance activities. - Escalate risk acceptance, architecture exceptions, material client commitments, and security-sensitive decisions through the appropriate ETS process. 4. Standards, Documentation & Mentoring: - Create and maintain standards, implementation guidance, checklists, diagrams, scripts, knowledge articles, operational procedures, and support documentation. - Mentor Tier 1 personnel through ticket review, collaborative troubleshooting, training, project participation, documentation, and practical knowledge transfer. - Help define learning objectives and readiness expectations for common Microsoft 365 work while the designated leader retains formal development-plan and performance accountability. - Review recurring issues and quality findings to improve documentation, training, configuration consistency, and service delivery. 5. Automation & Service Improvement: - Identify and implement approved automation, scripting, workflow, and responsible AI improvements related to Microsoft 365 administration and service delivery. - Ensure automation includes testing, documentation, monitoring, error handling, security, change management, maintenance, and operational ownership. - Avoid fragile workflows, unsupported methods, undocumented dependencies, or automation that makes the team more dependent on one person. - Measure or document meaningful improvement in capacity, quality, consistency, completion time, rework, or client experience when practical. 6. Cross-Functional Consulting & Accountability: - Provide Microsoft 365 technical input to Sales, Account Management, Projects, Service Desk, Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, and Systems Administration for scoping, readiness, risk, and supportability. - Maintain clear ownership and communication when work crosses departments. - Use ETS PSA, RMM, documentation, project, security, and collaboration systems as required. - Record time accurately, manage assigned work through completion, and escalate capacity, priority, authority, or architecture concerns early. - Participate in after-hours, project, maintenance, or on-call responsibilities as determined by leadership. Role Boundaries & Escalation: - The Tier 2 Specialist provides advanced Microsoft 365 guidance but does not independently own company-wide technology strategy, formal people management, material risk acceptance, or final approval of major architecture exceptions. - High-risk, nonstandard, cross-practice, security-sensitive, or architecture-level decisions must involve the appropriate technical or business owner. - Client commitments, material scope changes, and significant platform decisions require approval through the appropriate ETS process. - The role should deliberately transfer knowledge and develop additional capability rather than becoming the sole owner of a client, platform, process, or technical area. Essential Technical Capabilities: - Advanced administration and troubleshooting across Entra ID, Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Intune, identity, access, licensing, collaboration, and approved tenant services. - Practical experience with conditional access, authentication, device management, email security, retention, data protection, service health, and Microsoft 365 support tools. - Microsoft 365 migrations, tenant onboarding, configuration review, testing, documentation, and operational handoff. - Networking, DNS, endpoints, applications, identity dependencies, security fundamentals, and hybrid-environment considerations relevant to Microsoft 365. - PowerShell, automation, workflow, or responsible AI capabilities appropriate to Microsoft 365 administration and service delivery. - Architecture, change control, security, testing, monitoring, supportability, client communication, and escalation judgment. Essential Professional Capabilities: - Communicate clearly and professionally with clients, team members, vendors, and leaders. - Apply structured troubleshooting, sound judgment, curiosity, persistence, and appropriate escalation. - Maintain accurate documentation, client communication, time records, ownership, and follow-through. - Collaborate across teams without creating ambiguity around ownership, authority, or communication. - Protect confidential, security-sensitive, client, and organizational information. - Accept feedback, share knowledge, and contribute to a culture of continuous learning and improvement.